A white haired woman ran through the gold and white forest. She was panting heavily as she grabbed her right shoulder, applying pressure to it. It was only when she got deep into forest that she finally stopped to rest by a small stream.
She turned her head to the stream, looking at her hazy reflection on the shiny white water. "Well, I guess this is my life now. I might as well get comfortable. She dipped her legs into the running stream, immediately, sensing a kind of somber vibe from the water itself. It was hard to explain it, but it was like she could hear the stream crying out.
"Maybe I've got a new power. Who knew inanimate objects could feel. Haha." She tried as hard as she could to reject it with excuses, but in truth, she recognized this taste of sadness. It was always there whenever she watched Nova.
The Tuttel acted cold around other people to push them away, but this was all so they wouldn't be able to sense the overwhelming depression sitting in her heart.
But this woman knew Nova's dominant behavior and feelings from watching her from within the darkness. She was a soft hearted, kind and innocent young woman, albeit the tough exterior she feigned.
At first, the woman was satisfied, knowing that Nova's life was also miserable, but as time passed, she began to wonder, why? Why was she always sad and frustrated? Always taking out her pain on monsters so much so she wouldn't be able to move? And why she didn't care too much about her life.
Nova was a smart woman, so she definitely knew her limits. Yet, she chose to cross it anyway, endangering her own life every single time without care.
Does she regret what she did? The woman wondered. 'No. If she did feel even a morsel of regret, she would have reached out to me."
The woman washed away her thoughts with a scoop of the water flowing around her feet. She didn't want to be the one to justify Nova's actions.
———
"Why can't I remember? Who is she? How did I not realize I was being watched?" Nova's head was flooding with questions. But she had no way of getting answers to them. But on second thought, maybe she could in this weird place.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ground shook at the calm footsteps of an approaching, large monster. Nova peered from behind the tree she rested on and saw that it was a large stone golem, walking towards the direction, the white haired woman had gone.
Nova glared angrily at the beast. 'Not again.'
She ran over to the trudging monster to halt its advances. The monster, unsurprisingly stopped as Nova stood before it. She had already expected that the monsters she had unknowingly created from her touch would have some kind of loyalty to her. But as to how deep it was, she didn't know.
"Stop! Don't go there." Nova commanded. However, the golem just bent down, picked her by the collar and hanged her body on the branch of a tree. After doing that, it continued its walk.
"Argh!" Nova cried out in frustration. She removed her collar from the branch, and started falling down from the tall tree. Before she reached the ground, she kicked on the stem of the tree and did a forward roll to the ground, landing safely. After that, she ran after the golem.
*Clang* Nova's metal gauntlets hit the monster's ankle. Seeing as it still didn't stop walking, she continued to hit it. *Clang* *Clang* *Clang*
Her punches yielded zero reaction from the golem. To it, Nova was just like a fussing child.
"Damn monster." She ran ahead the monster, towards a tree and started kicking it.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!...
The tree shook from the immense force behind her barrage of kicks and soon succumbed to it strength. Three-quarter of the tree either blew apart, or was beat to softness, leaving the other one-forth in good condition. As the golem drew near, she climbed on the thin tree and pulled it from the top, downwards. She descended fast towards the ground, pulling the tree along, and then grabbed the stem of another tree, beside the falling one with her arm.
Nova pulled hard with both hands on each tree as the monster hit the diagonal one with its leg and tripped.
Crack! One of Nova's arm dislocated as the tree she was pulling down completely broke. But at least, she had managed to fulfill her objective. The golem fell hard on the golden floor, shaking a reasonable range of the forest.
Nova panted heavily as she grabbed her dislocated left arm in pain. She was even limping, as the leg she had used to break the tree was also a mess. "Stay on the ground... *huff *huff*... You piece of trash."
BOOM! BOOM!
The golem suddenly punched the ground with both its fists and started to push itself up.
Nova stepped back, clenching her teeth. It being able to get back up was a possibility she didn't want to happen.
As the golem rose itself to its knees, Nova turned her head around, trying to find some other way to deal with the monster. But even if she did this time, she might not be able to execute it because of her condition.
The golem stood up completely, but instead of walking, it did nothing.
'Huh? Did it finally listen?' She thought. However, she couldn't be more wrong.
The golem turned its body around to face her, with its fists in the air. Nova's eyes turned dilated as she stared upwards with fear and shock. She thought it wouldn't attack her, but to the golem, it's objective seemed to be more important than her safety.
Nova tried to run, however, all she was able to do was limp a few steps before falling. The golem swung its fists down at her, holding no strength back.
'This is it, huh?' She thought as the golem's fists came above her head. 'In the end, I couldn't even repay one of my debts.'
She closed her eyes, trying to give up every ounce of hope she had of getting out of this situation. But for some reason, doing that was incredibly hard.
Instead of regret, remorse and hopelessness, what was plaguing Nova's heart was the chance of starting anew and an overwhelming fighting spirit.
Where were these emotions coming from? Nova reopened her eyes, only to see the golem that was about to kill her flying through the air.
"Meteor... Fist!" A white haired woman wearing sleeveless white crop top and puffy pants, yelled with one hand outstretched beside her. Nova was surprised that this familiar looking woman had both her arms intact, but even more so that she was now bigger than even the giant golem itself.
"Yeesh Lighty, you must really hate yourself for your own minion to do that." The woman grinned at Nova. But that grin soon regressed as all of a sudden, tears started to stream down Nova's face.
"He... Hey now, why are you crying? What's wrong? Are you hurting that much?"
Nova shook her head and smiled at the woman. "I'm fine. You can rest for once, I'll handle this—"
BOOM!
The golem appeared out of nowhere and slammed its rocky fist on the cheek of the woman above it. "Ugh." However, except for pressing her right cheek in and moving her head a little, the woman was perfectly fine.
"Well you are going to handle this of course..." The woman worded out of her squeezed mouth. She pulled the golem's fist away from her face and swung her leg at its crotch, kicking it into the sky like a ball.
"...But you've gotta get your act together." She completed. "Wonder why I've got these sweet powers?"
It was then that Nova realized that the woman could use abilities, even in this place, while she couldn't. "Hm." She nodded.
"Haha. That's what you get." The woman rested her arms on her waist. "You don't take into account, the things you don't know exist, that's why you're short sighted.
Look around you Nova. This... This is your Innerverse! Whatever laws you make here, goes."
They suddenly started hearing rumbling in the forest. There were littler but many golem's stampeding towards the two girls.
"An Innerverse?" But only a few high level humans in the S-rank and SS-rank categories had a personal dungeon. And she wasn't even a level 65 yet.
But Nova believed the woman's words to be true as she felt like this strange place had some sort of connection to her.
But it wasn't just her...
Nova slowly placed the palm of her previously broken arm on the floor, and the ground suddenly opened up like a large mouth, revealing an endless abyss for the small golems to fall into.
BOOM!
The mouth shut close instantly.
"...This is our Innerverse." Nova corrected. "And we make the rules."